From brainstorming to bodystormig

I have heard and learned about brainstorming techniques before. It is a method used to generate ideas to solve design related problems, but what I never heard before was about bodystorming. Bodystorming is a technique used to develop new ideas by physically experiencing a problem. This included different methods such as empathy and ideation to help create a tangible prototype or solution.

To understand this concept, we did an in-class exercise of how we would redesign the university for wheelchair users to make it more convenient for them. For this, one individual from each group had to sit in the wheelchair and perform various tasks and the rest of the group members had to observe how easy or difficult the task was for the wheelchair user.

For my group, the person on the wheelchair had to go to the bathroom and come back to the classroom. We observed various problems for example, too many doors on the way to the bathroom and the doors were heavy to open, for which we thought of making all the doors automatic.

This exercise taught me to think about the user’s needs from their perspective and how to solve the problem. This technique of bodystorming helps to empathize better with the user and to solve the problem more effectively.